Taylor Hebert
Taylor Anne Hebert,Prey 14.8 also known as Skitter, is the main character of Worm. Her surname is pronounced "Hee-bert".Comment on spacebattles by Wildbow Appearance Civilian Identity Taylor was a tall, rail-thin, pale, young woman with long, curly black hairSentinel 9.6Interlude 19.z and glasses. She had a thin-lipped, wide, expressive mouth she inherited from her mother, and her large eyes and gawky figure made her look a lot like her dad.Gestation 1.1Interlude 22 She was approximately 5'6" at the story's outsethttps://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/14723063 Taylor didn't wear clothes that showed skin, or bright colors. At various times, she wore a brown hooded sweatshirt over a green t-shirt. Parahuman Identity As Skitter= As Skitter, Taylor wore various costumes made of spider silk. Initially, she wears a black-and-grey spider silk bodysuit with armor panels made out of insect shells and exoskeletons augmented with more spider silk. The costume's prototype had fabric that was a dirty yellow-gray color, and the armor was colored dark mottled brown-grayGestation 1.2. She later dyes it black with grey paneling before she goes outGestation 1.3. The lenses of her mask are durable, high-end swim goggles tinted to help filter out bright lights, with lenses from an old pair of her glasses sealed inside with silicon. Her mask leaves the back of her head uncovered and her hair free to fly behind her.Hive 5.10 She kept her costume clean by having bugs eat and clean any waste and wiping it down with a cloth.Comment by Wildbow on Tangle 6.6 The spider-silk fabric is too tough to cut with an x-acto knife, although it can be slowly cut through using wire cutters. It was mostly waterproof. The costume lacks the full extent of the armor paneling she planned, including protection for the back of her head, but the armor covers her face, chest, spine, stomach and major joints. Eventually it included shoulder pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, a chest guard and kneepads, possibly more. Each had "layers" resembling a pillbug.Comment by Wildbow on Tangle 6.6 The mask design features dull yellow lenses and sections of armor designed to imitate a bug’s mandibles. Later, after a redesign, she incorporated clawed fingertips into her costume.Extinction 27.4 Taylor has a utility compartment for storing necessary items, weapons, and insects in the shape of a spade-shaped armor panel that covers her back.Gestation 1.4, Taylor's backpack contains "a set of EpiPens, a pen and notepad, a tube of pepper spray meant to hang off a key chain and a zippered pouch of chalk dust." In Queen 18.3, Miss Militia takes a look at the contents and sees: A handgun (Trickster's spare), a length of spider silk fashioned into a long cord, pepper spray, a change purse, containing cotton swabs (to muffle the noise), needles, smelling salts, and change, a collapsible baton, and a combat knife (sturdy enough to be used as a crowbar if needed) |-|As Weaver= As Weaver, Taylor uses a flight pack developed and maintained by Defiant. She first wears a generic version of her costume created by Dragon, which lacks the armor of her earlier costume simply being a light grey bodysuit with cleaner, slim dark grey armor panels. The mantle around her shoulders and the cloth hanging from her belt are marked in electric blue with the Undersiders' emblem (a beetle facing downwards) in miniature at each corner, flipped upside down so that it faces upward. Cell 22.6 When she deployed against Behemoth in New Deli Defiant spray-painted her last Skitter cosumtume white to match her weaver colors and allow her additional protection. After The Timeskip Weaver was properly outfitted with a silk body suit and her usual armor. Her later costume had extra armor, with a coil of silk hidden beneath an armor panel at the back of the hand.Extinction 27.4 Wildbow had her down in his notes as 5’8″ (175 cm), 125 lbs (56 kg) during her stay in prisonComment by Wildbow on Drone 23.1. According to her Wards physical, she was five feet and nine inches tallScarab 25.1. She later described herself as a hundred and thirty pounds and 5'10"Sting 26.2 During the oil-rig battle, she wore a black bodysuit with white armor panels and lenses. She carried primarily symbolic weapons - a handgun, taser, and pepper spray - and wore her flight pack. Afterward, she wore a similar costume, including flight pack.Cockroaches 28.3Venom 29.3 She carred the same tube of pepper spray, rescued from the remains of her previous costume. She carried a knife in a holster, and supplemented it with a nano-thorn knife created by Defiant.Venom 29.3 |-|As Khepri = As Khepri, Taylor wears a black bodysuit with white armor panels and lenses. She is missing an arm, and appears to not be able to control her body very well. Throughout the fight with Scion, she usually had Doormaker and Clairvoyant attached to her, though when Doormaker ran out of energy for his power, she left him behind. After the Timeskip, she wears a spider-silk version of her Weaver costume. After it's partially destroyed during the oil-rig battle, she wears a costume that combines elements of several provisional costumes she had created in different color schemes. Personality Background Taylor is initially a shy and awkward teenage girl with a keen interest in capes. She looked forward to the part of her World Issues class where they discussed capes "since the start of the semester". She had seemingly never heard of Trigger Events, but this may have been a mistake by the author.Comment by Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles She was "'surviving', for lack of a better word," from the point her mother died, and then surviving from the point she started getting bullied -- she just wanted to get by. She responded to stress with silence and withdrawal.WoG archived on spacebattles She suspected that she would hurt herself before she hurt the Trio. However, Wildbow has stated that if she hadn't triggered, Taylor would likely have simply stopped going to school.Reddit - "What would've happened to Taylor if she'd never triggered?" Story Start She has shown some insecurity in her femininity, describing her long, dark curly hair as her "only feminine feature". She would always stress over choosing her clothes.Tangle 6.2 Taylor considered joining the Wards, but felt that "the notion of escaping the stresses of high school by flinging myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and schedules seemed self-defeating".Gestation 1.6 She had no trust in organized institutions, and felt happier having some independence and control.Comment by Wildbow on Gestation 1.6 She was afraid of illegal drugs, saying she "had this sense" that they were like "an unstoppable black hole". Just the idea of being around someone that was high made her mildly anxious.Hive 5.8 Post-Leviathan She suffered from nightmares.Commment by Wildbow on Infestation 11.1 Post-Timeskip She is an exceptionally accomplished martial artist; her enhanced senses enable her to react to events faster than she should be able to. She can easily defeat even many powered opponent's hand-to-hand. She is noted to be cold and ruthless by many characters. She became concerned that her passenger was influencing her behaviour.Had I? Not wholly consciously. I'd set up the string, but how much of that was intentional? Was it habit, now, to have a measure on hand when dealing with any weapon? I focused on the swarm, focused on the cords and threads that traced the room. One in the doorway, one at each of Phir Sē's feet, just waiting for me to finish the deal and bind him. Others extended between us, spiders poised to cut the threads or tie them, as the situation demanded. The passenger, or was it me, being wary? "I guess I did," I said. I made the spiders cut the threads between us. ... My heart was still pounding, my mouth dry, and it wasn't just the Phir Sē thing, or the teleporter. The passenger. - Crushed 24.4 She even blamed ordinary emotions on her passenger."It's been a bad day, in case you haven't noticed. You're allowed to feel bad. It's kind of normal." Normal. I'd been thinking of my feelings as being off-kilter, out of control, unreasonable and irrational. Were they just regular feelings? Emotions that weren't being reined in by my discipline and bottling everything up, by distraction and disconnection? Somewhere along the line, I'd stopped thinking about my feelings as being mixed up or fucked up and stopped concerning myself with them altogether. On a level, I'd blamed my passenger. But I wasn't sure I could justify that with what I was experiencing now. Why would the passenger take away, gain ground in subsuming my identity and then give it back, all like this? Was it just me?-Extinction 27.3 She tried hypnosis and bartering with it to control it, to no avail. Eventually she made a kind of peace with it.Sting 26.4 Gold Morning She ultimately resolves not to focus overmuch on her identity as Skitter or Weaver, but to try and combine the strengths of both as Taylor.I can be Taylor without being weak. Keep the best parts of Skitter and Weaver. Extinction 27.3 She refused to give in to "forces of nature" again.Want to prove this isn't hopeless, that we can do something. I don't want to lose to another bully. I'm done with surrendering to ''forces of nature, human nature or otherwise.'' - Extinction 27.5 Relationships Civilians Taylor had a strained relationship with the students of Winslow High. Because she was bullied extensively by "other girls and a small handful of boys" with the "trio" - Madison Clements, Sophia Hess, and Emma Barnes acting as the ringleaders, she was reluctant to make friends and believed that boys didn't like her. She speculates that the few boys that bullied her sought approval from three of the prettier and more popular girls. Taylor disliked Mr. Gladly viewing him as one of the ‘popular kids' who had become a teacher. Mrs. Knott, who taught Computer sciences was Taylor's favourite teacher. As Weaver, Taylor visits Ms. Yamada for therapy. The Public start to see weaver as a hero following the Behemoth battle. Taylor's Bullies Madison Clements, Sophia Hess, and Emma Barnes - The Trio of students responsible for bullying Taylor. Emma was Taylor's best friend from first grade to middle school, the two girls stayed at each other's houses every weekend. Upon entering high school, Emma suddenly abandoned her for Sophia and Madison. The three then tormented her - Sophia physically, Madison superficially and Emma emotionally. Because Emma knew some of Taylor's psychological weaknesses, such as the death of Mrs. Hebert, she was the only one really able to hurt Taylor. Taylor resisted attacking the trio with her powers, no matter how much she wanted to. She considered the thought of her father's disappointment on seeing that she had attacked the Trio "daunting" but less than her anger and frustration with them. Emma Barnes' parents blame Taylor for their daughter's eventual death. Danny Hebert They develop a somewhat strained relationship after she becomes Skitter. but repair it over the time she acted as Weaver. She always saw his teachings as a source of strength. Other Parahumans Taylor was a big fan of Alexandria. Taylor is close to Golem, serving as something of a mentor figure. She also spends a large amount of her time with Chicago wards but is considered not to be as close with them as she is with the Undersiders. The impact she has on the events of the fight while in this state is large enough to warrant her being referred to simply as her ''in the aftermath. As Weaver, Taylor visits Ms. Yamada for therapy. The Public start to see weaver as a hero following the Behemoth battle. After the time-skip, she is close to Golem, serving as something of a mentor figure. She also spends a large amount of her time with Chicago wards but is considered not to be as close with them as she is with the Undersiders. After recovering from her injuries during the oil-rig battle, Taylor collects a team of parahumans with a semi-rotating membership from capes she had known in the past. This group includes Lung, Tattletale, Shadow Stalker, Cuff, Tecton, and Canary at different points. Armsmaster He was the first real Cape that Taylor worked with. She loses her respect for him after he betrays her, and they later become brutal enemies. After gaining perspective, Armsmaster apologizes to her (which catches her off guard.) Afterwards they're able to have a civil (if not friendly) relationship. Lisa Wilbourn "Tattletale" Lisa is one of the first to trust Taylor from their first meeting and eventually becomes her closest friend. Brian Laborn "Grue" Taylor develops a crush on him and the two date for awhile. After the timeskip, though they have long since separated, she is still surprised to see that he had moved on with someone else. Rachel Lindt "Bitch" The two initially have a rocky relationship, but by the end of Worm, Taylor is one of the few Rachel could call a friend. Alec "Regent" Taylor is wary of Regent. She knows that he's a sociopath and considers his membership on the Undersiders a necessary evil. Aisha Laborn "Imp" Taylor thinks she's annoying, but tolerates her out of respect for her brother. They develop a close personal relationship later on. Defiant Despite his earlier betrayal, Defiant becomes something of a friend to Taylor, or at least a respected colleague. He and Dragon work to create her equipment and ferry her from place to place, at least partly as an apology. Abilities and Powers Taylor posesses a form of telepathyComment by Wildbow on Extermination 8.4 that grants her total control over most arthropods.Comment by Wildbow on Plague 12.1 Control She can make her subjects do things that they would not normally do,Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles such as walk into fire , produce so much web silk that they physically couldn't produce any moreComment by Wildbow on Prey 14.4 or stinging while injecting littleColony 15.9 to no venom.Tangle 6.7 She doesn't require "organized" insects. Once she stops controlling them, her bugs revert to their normal behavior patterns.Comment by Wildbow on Plague 12.1 Multitasking Taylor has an almost limitless ability to focus on multiple insects at once, or to focus on other things while also using her insects.Colony 15.9Comment by Wildbow on Infestation 11.2 She can give general instructions, in which case she is only vaguely aware of their movements, or guide individual insects through complex tasks, in which case she is more precisely aware of their movements and environment.Comment by Wildbow on Shell 4.3 However, she could be distracted by the difficulty of focusing on her insects' senses,Comment by Wildbow on Prey 14.4 and by Panacea's modified insects providing contradictory signals.Agitation 3.12 As of Colony 15.7, she was only capable of holding one conversation at a time, even while controlling multiple clones. Her power would sometimes perform actions by habit, when she was incapacitated,Hey, passenger, I thought. Do me a favor. If I get taken out of action and you step up to fight, work on taking out Jack, alright? - or when she was in an altered mental state,Passenger, I thought. Been a while, trying to figure out how to make peace with the fact that you're there, that you're affecting me somehow, taking control whenever I'm not in my own mind. I think we've made strides. I've sort of accepted that you're going to do what you're going to do, whether that helps me or hurts me. -Sting 26.2 without her conscious instruction. Emotions Taylor would sometimes use her bugs to "channel" her emotions, lending her an "aura of indomitable calm".I was using my bugs to channel my feelings, even with my concerns about my passenger and how it might be merging with me. I was wearing that aura of indomitable calm, even though I wasn't sure I liked the Taylor of this past year and a half, who had been doing just that as a matter of both habit and necessity. - Extinction 27.3 Senses The sensory input from her bugs is "fuzzy" and difficult for humans to interpret.Comment by Wildbow on Tangle 6.1 She can sporadically hear and see clearly, but the "signal quality" is unreliable. Practicing doesn't seem to produce results. However, over time, Taylor does learn to more reliably hear through her bugs. As of Cell 22.4, she was unable to understand a phone message heard with her bugs, but was able to identify it was a recording. She was only able to discern tone of voice at "rare moments".Cell 22.4 Based on the combined sensory input of large numbers of insects, Taylor can gain a very clear mental picture of whatever they're interacting with. She can also sense the biology and location of every bug she can control.Comment by Wildbow on Cell 9.1 This gives her enhanced aimSting 26.6 and the ability to dodge attacks with supernatural reaction times. However, in environments where bugs are scarce, or when dealing with materials that they don't interact with well, her image of the area can become less reliable. Taylor also receives some knowledge of her bugs' biology from her power,Prey 14.6 giving her an understanding of their limits, capabilities and the effects of adaptions such as any venom they have.“Yeah,” Lisa raised an eyebrow, “You do know which bugs you had biting him, right? Black Widow, Brown Recluse, Browntail Moth, Mildei, Fire Ants-” “Yeah,” I cut her off, “I don’t know the official names, but I know exactly what bit him, what stung him and what the venoms do.”'' --Excerpt from Insinuation 2.6 Limits Taylor has a limited range. During periods of stress, it would increase, but the increases weren't permanent.Comment by Wildbow on Infestation 11.3 Nevertheless, her range did slowly increase over time, eventually reaching over six and a half blocks.Chrysalis 20.5 Her power doesn't work on creatures below a certain size.Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.1 At different times, she speculated that she could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell -- which wouldn't explain how she could control earthworms -- and that it was the subject having a non-complex nervous system.“I used to think I could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell. But I can control earthworms too, among other things, and they don’t have shells. I think all it takes is that they have to have very simple brains.” -excerpt from Agitation 3.1 Her power does not affect squid. It's possible that she could control bug-like Case 53s, depending on their brain makeup & chemistry.Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 5 At one point, Taylor is able to distract Scion underwater by forming simulated bodies out of sea creatures. Skills Taylor has come up with a multitude of creative uses of her power. For example, she can produce and manipulate large quantities of spider silk, coat her insects in petroleum jelly and capsaicin to use them like pepper spray, deploy groups of bugs to create humanoid figures,Infestation 11.3 mask her movements, and clear out rat infestations. She was able to catch containment foam on glass carried by her bugs and stick it to her attackers.Parasite 10.5 She can disguise or project her voice by having her insects buzz and chirp together.Comment by Wildbow on Sentinel 9.6 She even had some tricks she wasn't consciously aware of learning. For example, she would occasionally use her bugs to cover her while she moved without noticing, making her difficult to track. Taylor had an unusually high pain tolerance, which she blamed on her exposure to a pain-bomb of Bakuda's.Venom 29.9 Classification Taylor was rated by PRT analysts as a Master 5,Extermination 8.5 which was later upgraded to an 8.Cell 22.1] A rating of Thinker 1 was officially added when Emily Piggot deduced she could see through her bugs in a limited fashion.Queen 18.3 Piggot suggested that this should be upgraded when Taylor admitted she came up with the plan to raid the PRT to stop Dragon and demonstrated the ability to anticipate incoming attacks through her bugs.Monarch 16.2 It later was. Even later, Director Tagg ordered her rating to increase by two in every category, trying to make sure his soldiers didn't underestimate her, and to authorize various means of containing her.Tagg slaps a '2 of everything' on Taylor because it gives full authorization for all special measures, and it's a constant reminder to his people that she's a threat in every department... Comment by wildbow on spacebattles Taylor's trigger event, which involved both an environmental stressor and a thinker stressor, led her primarily Master power to have Thinker and Shaker overtones. Is the fact that Taylor was trapped a reason why her Master powers act the same way as Shaker powers do? do tell Yeah, there's overlap. ... Taylor is needing help from being trapped in a sucky environment. Environmental stressor, thinker stressor, more thinkery shakery master power. - Wildbow on IRC, archived on SpaceBattles Quotes *(To Lung): "Don't underestimate me." *(To Triumph): "Sorry. I didn't want this to go this far." *(To Doctor Mother): ''"I know what that's like, I've walked down that road. Maybe not so ugly a road, but I've gone that route. All the way along, I told myself it sucked, but I wouldn't do it differently. I did everything I did for a reason. Except now, having reached the point I was working towards, I finally do regret it all. The last two years, the way I treated my teammates, leaving the Undersiders... I'd change it all in a heartbeat."''https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/extinction-27-2/ *(To Tecton): “Being good or bad was never a thing for me. Not really. It was all about the actions I was taking and why." *"I didn’t follow that stuff, didn’t buy into the hero worship. I’d always found the capes interesting, I’d followed the non-gossipy news about them, but with the exception of a phase around the time I was nine where I’d had an Alexandria t-shirt and had my mom help me find pictures of her online, I had never really got giddy over any particular hero." - Tangle 6.7 Trivia *Taylor likely triggered Monday the third of January 2011 as it was described as the first day of school in the new year. *"Khepri" is a god in ancient Egyptian religion connected with the scarab beetle, because the scarab rolls balls of dung across the ground, an act that the Egyptians saw as a symbol of the forces that move the sun across the sky. *Glaistig Uaine calls Taylor "Queen Administrator"Scarab 25.5, queen being one of the regal titles that Glaistig Uaine uses for those with powerful and fully developed shardsExtinction 27.4, which became a popular fan nickname for the power. *Originally, it was considered that Taylor would die during the Leviathan fight, with Wildbow even writing death scene out. However, due to other factors he ultimately decided to keep her alive Fanart Gallery Civilian= Worm_skitter_taylor_by_monkeyjay.png| Illustration by monkeyjay on deviantart Yooeyui_taylor_art1.png| Illustration by yooeyui from reddit Zz_more_taylor_fan_art.png| Illustration by yooeyui from reddit Holocene taylor.png| Illustration by Holocene from spacebattles Skitter by saniika.jpg| Illustration by saniika from deviantart taylor_by_sandara-d9kb143.jpg|Image by sandara on DeviantArt taylor_hebert_by_geekysoundcat-d8morll.png|Image by sgcassidy on DeviantArt taylor hebert progression.jpg|Image by RespicePostTe on DeviantArt taylor_hebert_by_wolfofragnarok-d7q65fd.jpg|Image by wolfofragnarok on DeviantArt taylor_by_drunkfu-d6ut230.jpg|Image by drunkfu on DeviantArt taylor_hebert__worm__by_linaleez-d9usxbv.jpg|Image by LinaLeeZ on DeviantArt the_right_reasons_by_cactusfantastico-d84qo9h.png|Image by cactusfantastico on DeviantArt taylor hebert metamorphosis.jpg|Image by RespicePostTe on DeviantArt |-|Skitter= Skitter.jpg| Illustration by cactusfantastico on deviantart 7j0Q6TSg.jpg|Fanart by monkeyjay on Reddit. Worm_skitter_taylor_by_monkeyjay.png| Illustration by monkeyjay on deviantart taylor hebert progression.jpg|Image by RespicePostTe on DeviantArt Skitter worm fanart by drunkfu-d4yobln.jpg Yooeyui_taylor_art1.png| Illustration by yooeyui from reddit heros_and_villans_by_icehipo-d8fxlqj.jpg|Image by icehipo on DeviantArt skitter_by_strawberrybooty-d9rof2i.png|Image by strawberrybooty on DeviantArt daily_art_11__queen_of_the_swarm_by_xenoanubis-d93cpwp.jpg|Image by xenoanubis on DeviantArt untitled_drawing_by_aloofmonkey-d8teeus.png|Image by aloofmonkey on DeviantArt _fight_the_friction_worm_skitter_by_idgyimagination-d8ptk69.jpg|Image by IDGYimagination on DeviantArt skitter_and_her_pet_by_liujuin-d7xmtqd.jpg|Image by liujuin on DeviantArt skitter_original_outfit_concepts__worm__by_wolfofragnarok-d7rvq1w.jpg|Image by wolfofragnarok on DeviantArt worm_fanart_by_drunkfu-d4yobln.jpg|Image by drunkfu on DeviantArt Tumblr nnjwrng2pc1tge44yo1 1280.jpg|Image by wolfofragnarok on DeviantArt Tumblr n8ff1qRua31txp8gjo1 1280.jpg|Image by wolfofragnarok on DeviantArt worm__chapter_1_cover_art_by_wolfofragnarok-d7ptq7j.jpg|Worm Gestation cover by wolfofragnarok skitter metamorphosis.jpg|Image by RespicePostTe on DeviantArt |-|Weaver|Khepri= File:Weaver111_P9.jpg|Image by pabelandnine.tumblr.com. Khepri.jpg weaver_costume_concept_by_lonsheep-dazwaro.jpg|Image by lonsheep on DeviantArt weaver_of_chicago_by_lonsheep-dazq50t.jpg|Image by lonsheep on DeviantArt heros_and_villans_by_icehipo-d8fxlqj.jpg|Image by icehipo on DeviantArt Khepri by Velocirexisaur.png|Image by Velocirexisaur on Reddit taylor hebert progression.jpg|Image by RespicePostTe on DeviantArt Khepri by abyranss.jpg|Image by abyranss on Tumblr weaver_by_respicepostte-d6or38a.jpg|Image by RespicePostTe on DeviantArt skitter_worm_by_linaleez-d9ooqyj.jpg|Image by LinaLeeZ on DeviantArt References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Master Category:Thinker Category:The Undersiders Category:Wards Category:Heroes Category:Villains